Berlin, Germany: On the final day of his official visit to Germany, Sikyong Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) concluded a series of high-level engagements in Berlin, meeting with German parliamentarians at the Bundestag and senior leadership of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS).
Sikyong began his morning at the German Parliament inside the Paul-Löbe-Haus, where he held an extensive dialogue with lawmakers led by Hon’ble Michael Brand, Member of the German Bundestag and Human Rights Spokesperson of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. The parliamentary delegation included Dr. Carolin Wagner (SPD) and David Gregosz (CDU/CSU), joined by long-time Tibet advocates including former envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen and representatives from Tibet Initiative Deutschland (TID) and the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
Sikyong conveyed appreciation for Germany’s steadfast support for human rights, democratic values, and the preservation of Tibetan identity. A grave focus of the morning parliamentary session was a recent targeted arson attack on the Office of Tibet compound in South Africa. Sikyong informed the lawmakers that around midnight, assailants hurled Molotov cocktails directly into the residential compound, setting two rooms on fire. While Representative Dhundup Gyalpo managed to escape unharmed through a window, Sikyong emphasized that this was the second firebombing at the premises in recent months, underscoring that it was a calculated attempt at intimidation and harm rather than common burglary. Sikyong called on European governments and their diplomatic missions in South Africa to publicly register concern and urge host authorities to investigate and safeguard Tibetan missions against escalating transnational repression.
During the discussions, Sikyong apprised the parliamentarians of the good health and daily audience schedule of His Holiness the Dalai Lama following his knee surgery, while strongly cautioning against Beijing’s ongoing attempts to interfere in His Holiness’s reincarnation through regulatory pretexts such as Order No. 5. He highlighted Beijing’s aggressive assimilation campaign under the banner of “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law,” notably the coercive placement of nearly one million Tibetan children into colonial-style boarding schools to sever their connection to their native language, cultural identity, and Buddhist heritage. Sikyong also raised critical concerns over large-scale resource exploitation and unilateral damming on the Tibetan Plateau that threaten regional climate stability and transboundary water security. Reaffirming the CTA’s steadfast commitment to the Middle Way Approach, Sikyong appealed to the Bundestag to establish a formal Parliamentary Group for Tibet and extended an open invitation to the lawmakers to visit the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala.
Later in the afternoon, Sikyong visited the headquarters of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung for a strategic consultation with Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering, former President of the European Parliament and former Chairman of KAS. The leaders exchanged views on international geopolitical developments, European foreign policy, and expanding collaborative advocacy for Tibet across multilateral platforms. Sikyong stressed the vital importance of preserving Tibetan language, culture, and democratic resilience across the diaspora amid shifting demographic realities, highlighting CTA initiatives such as the Voluntary Tibet Advocacy Group (V-TAG), the International Tibetan Youth Forum, and over 90 weekend classes worldwide. He appealed to KAS and European partners for sustained moral, educational, and institutional support to counter systemic transnational pressures and cultivate future leadership.
Throughout the day’s proceedings, Sikyong was accompanied by Representative Thinlay Chukki of the Tibet Bureau Geneva, former envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, and Dhondup, President of the Tibetan Community in Germany, who assisted in coordinating the engagements.
